July:
A photo emerged online showing Undertaker (who according to the story line, was still in a “vegetative state”) marrying WWE Diva Michelle McCool. Apparently, WWE weren’t happy with the “leak”, as it contradicted the angle they’d concocted to keep ‘Taker off TV.
It had been reported that ‘Taker and McCool had married in a low-key ceremony in Houston, Texas. It’s believed former WWE Divas Torrie Wilson, Sharmell (Booker T’s wife) and Lisa “Victoria” Varon (TNA Knockout Tara) were among those in attendance.
It was reported that WWE’s former Head Of International Operations Shane McMahon (who quit his post in January 2010) was now part of a consortium who’d made a multi-million pound investment into Sports Management.
The Wrestling Observer and The Sun reported that HHH would be likely to miss the SummerSlam PPV in August after under-going surgery on his arm.
Following a physical angle on Raw (I.e. a “gang-attack” from The Nexus) WWE Hall Of Fame inductee Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat suffered bleeding to the brain (which according to doctors, was caused by a ruptured blood vessel), although WWE reported that this health scare was “most likely not related” to the 450 Splash he took from Nexus member Justin Gabriel. (Thankfully, “The Dragon” went on to make a full recovery).
The “Money In The Bank” PPV took place on July 18 and saw Kane beat Kofi Kingston, Matt Hardy, Christian, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes and The Big Show in SD!’s “MITB” Ladder Match, which secured him a World Title Match, any time over the next 12 months. (Kane chose to “cash in” that very night, easily beating Rey Mysterio for the WWE World Heavyweight Title after Rey had retained the gold in a good bout against Jack Swagger).
On the Raw brand, The Miz became “Mr Money In The Bank” when he scaled the rungs and beat Randy Orton, Evan Bourne, Edge, John Morrison, Chris Jericho, Mark Henry and Ted Dibiase (accompanied by the lovely Maryse).
Elsewhere, Alicia Fox retained The WWE Divas Championship against Eve Torres, The Hart Dynasty (DH Smith & Tyson Kidd, with Natalya Neidhart in their corner) retained the Unified Tag-Team Titles against Rikishi’s sons, The Usos (accompanied by Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka’s daughter, Tamina), Layla (with Michelle McCool) retained her WWE Women’s Championship against Kelly Kelly (with Tiffany), and Sheamus retained the WWE Championship in a boring Cage Match against John Cena (the finish featured an inevitable run-in from The Nexus).
August:
Redhotdivas.com reported that WWE Diva Tiffany (Taryn Terrell) had been “suspended indefinitely” after reportedly being arrested on August 8 following an alleged “domestic disturbance” with her husband, SD! Superstar Drew McIntyre (Drew Galloway).
Multiple sources also reported that Tiffany and McIntyre attended a party together in Los Angeles on August 7 and that police and security were reportedly called following an apparent “domestic disturbance.”
WWE weren’t happy, as Tiffany had been in Los Angeles promoting SummerSlam, a PPV for which she had been scheduled to appear.
Tiffany was also removed from the video opening of SD!
Despite the charges later being dropped, Tiffany never returned to WWE TV.
In an interview with The Sun’s Rob McNichol, Stone Cold Steve Austin praised WWE’s return to a “PG” format and also called Bret “Hitman” Hart a “true legend.”
Former WWE World Tag-Team Champion Lance Cade (Lance McNaught) sadly died of heart failure on August 13. He was just 29.
Cade was best known for his tag-team partnership with Trevor Murdoch. Together, they held the WWE World Tag-Team Championship belts on 3 separate occasions. Just like with Chris Kanyon, WWE acknowledged Cade’s passing on WWE.Com but did nothing to pay tribute to him on TV.
SummerSlam took place on August 15: The Undertaker (looking genuinely frail and banged up) and Daniel Bryan (re-hired sooner than many had envisioned) made their respective returns: ‘Taker popped out of a casket during Kane’s WWE World Heavyweight Title defence against Rey Mysterio (however, Kane had the final say on the “less than 100%” Undertaker) and Bryan was unveiled as The Great Khali’s replacement in the Team Raw (led by John Cena) VS Nexus main event (Team Raw won after sole survivor Cena flattened The Nexus).
Former WWF, WCW & ECW star Luna Vachon passed away aged just 48 on August 27. Vachon had been one of the most convincing characters and one of the greatest all-round female performers the business had ever seen. Throughout her life, she had battled with bipolar issues and prior to her death, she had been dealt a cruel blow when she lost her home and all her possessions in a fire. She sadly became yet another wrestling tragedy.
“SES” member Serena was fired on August 27 after reportedly irking management for the last time with her antics outside the ring (I.e. her partying). Her departure was the beginning of the end for CM Punk’s “cult” on-screen faction.
Kaval (previously known as Loki in ROH and Senshi in TNA) won the 2nd series of “NXT” on August 31. The fact that Kaval (who as a well-travelled veteran of the independent scene, has more experience than most of the current WWE roster) was “mentored” by Lay-Cool (Layla & Michelle McCool) must have been WWE’s idea of a joke.
September:
Former WWF Superstar Bastion Booger (Mike Shaw) died of a heart attack at the age of 53 on September 11. Although the “Booger” character was more recognisable to the majority of wrestling fans, Shaw’s previous work in Stampede Wrestling (as Makhan Singh) and WCW (as “Norman The Lunatic” and “Trucker Norm”, respectively) was considered better than his stint as the lower-card comedy heel in the WWF.
In relevant from the WWE “Night Of Champions” PPV held on September 19, Dolph Ziggler (accompanied by his “girlfriend” Vickie Guerrero and her “NXT” Season 3 “Rookie Diva” Kaitlyn retained his IC Title against Kofi Kingston, Daniel Bryan beat The Miz (with his “NXT” Season 2 rookie Alex Riley) cleanly via submission to become the new WWE U.S. Champion, Michelle McCool beat Melina in a dreadful “Lumberjill” Match to unify the WWE Divas and WWE Women’s Championships, Kane retained the WWE World Heavyweight Title against his “brother” The Undertaker (cleanly, I might add), Drew McIntyre & Cody Rhodes won a tag-team “Gauntlet” Match to become the WWE Unified Tag-Team Champions by beating Mark Henry & Evan Bourne, The Hart Dynasty, The Usos and Santino Marella & Kozlov, and Randy Orton became the new WWE Champion when he won a “Six-Pack Challenge” against Sheamus, Wade Barrett, Chris Jericho, Edge and John Cena.
Former WWF Superstar Giant Gonzalez (Jorge Gonzalez) passed away on September 22 at the age of 44, following a long battle with diabetes. It was yet another sad loss for the wrestling business.
Gonzalez had a short but memorable run with the WWF in 1993, feuding with The Undertaker. Prior to the WWF, Gonzalez worked for WCW (World Championship Wrestling), under the name “El Gigante”. Gonzalez also worked briefly for New Japan Pro Wrestling following his departure from the WWF.
October:
WWE Hell In A Cell took place on October 3. It was a pretty forgettable show. In relevant results: Daniel Bryan retained the WWE U.S. Title in a Triple Threat “Submissions Count Anywhere” Match against The Miz and John Morrison, Randy Orton beat Sheamus In A Hell In A Cell Match to retain the WWE Championship, Wade Barrett beat John Cena (by virtue of the loss, Cena was then forced to join the Nexus), and Kane beat The Undertaker in a rather dull Hell In A Cell Match (and thus retained his WWE World Heavyweight Title) when the recently returned Paul Bearer turned heel on ‘Taker.
Speaking on his blog, Jim Ross noted that former WCW and WWE Superstar Bill Goldberg “could be a nice addition” to WM 27 in Atlanta.
Matt Hardy was finally released from his WWE contract on October 15 (I say “finally” because Hardy had almost turned his unhappiness with WWE into a game of “How Can I Get Them To Fire Me?” ). Hardy had been dissatisfied for some time (and in some respects, had reason to be). However, he also didn’t help himself with some of his online musings and ultimately, gave WWE little choice in the end. Matt is expected to show up in TNA to join his brother Jeff next year.
In noteworthy happenings from the “Bragging Rights” PPV on October 24: John Cena & David Otunga (of The Nexus) defeated the make-shift WWE Tag-Team Champions Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes in a farcical match that made a mockery of the tag belts and the push that McIntyre and Rhodes had previously been receiving (Cena and Otunga couldn’t get along and Cena basically won the match all by himself), Kane once again retained his World Title against his “brother” The Undertaker by beating him in a “Buried Alive” Match, after some unexplained interference from The Nexus (the match was improvement on their previous two PPV bouts, although it still wasn’t great, but in fairness Undertaker was totally banged up with injuries again), “Team SD!” (Captain Big Show, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Alberto Del Rio, Tyler Reks, Jack Swagger & Kofi Kingston) defeated “Team Raw” (Captain The Miz, John Morrison, Santino Marella, Ezekiel Jackson, R-Truth, CM Punk & Sheamus) in an inter-brand tag-team elimination match (the match was good but the result was forgotten around a week later), and Wade Barrett (with John Cena in his corner) beat Randy Orton via DQ in an awful WWE Championship Match (Cena deliberately interfered, saving the title for Orton, but giving Barrett the DQ win).
November:
Former TNA Superstar Kevin Nash reached out to Vince McMahon and WWE via Twitter, offering to return and win the Royal Rumble and then “get ‘Taker at Mania”. Nash, as we all know, worked for WWE between 1993 and 1996 and then again between 2002-2003 and has always remained on good terms with Vince McMahon and his company.
The Sun in the UK reported that CM Punk and The Undertaker would both be on the shelf for several months. Punk (who had suffered a damaged hip) was looking at 3 months, while ‘Taker was having serious shoulder problems that could possibly require surgery. WWE were hoping that both wrestlers would be fit and well again in time for WM 27 in 2011.
WWE wielded the axe on November 19, cutting the jobs of 6 of their talents (6 Superstars and 2 Divas). Let go were Shad Gaspard, Luke Gallows, Vance Archer (Lance Hoyt), Caylen Croft, Tiffany and Jillian Hall.
Survivor Series took place on November 21 and saw Rey Mysterio, Big Show, Kofi Kingston, MVP & Chris Masters defeat Alberto Del Rio, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger & Tyler Reks in a traditional 5-On-5 Survivor Series Elimination Match, Natalya beat Lay-Cool (Layla & Michelle McCool) in a 2-On-1 Handicap Match to become the new WWE Divas Champion, and Randy Orton retain the WWE Championship against Wade Barrett in a match refereed by John Cena (as per the match stipulation, Cena was now “fired”).
The following night on Raw, The Miz “cashed in” his “MITB” opportunity and beat Randy Orton to become the new WWE Champion (oh, and John Cena showed up, even though he’d been “fired” just 24 hours prior).
The “Divas”-themed season of “NXT” concluded on November 30 with Kaitlyn winning the honours (runner up Naomi was very humble in defeat). Kaitlyn later appeared on the SD! Brand, furthering the “love triangle” saga between her, Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero.
December:
SD! Superstar MVP asked for and received his release in early December. MVP confirmed via Twitter that he was looking to “freshen things up” and hinted at joining New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Former WWE Diva Jillian Hall tweeted to update fans on her status:
“Many don't know the truth about my release, but the truth is I asked for my release a couple times before I actually was officially released. No hard feelings towards WWE. This is just where I am in my life right now."
It had been erroneously reported that Jillian had actually been kept on with the company as a trainer. (The belief was that WWE had “released” her as an on-screen performer but not as a employee).
WWE TLC (Tables, Ladders & Chairs) was a strong way to end the year. In full results: Dolph Ziggler retained the IC Title in a three-way Ladder Match against Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger (the match was good, the finish [Dolph grabbing the belt off the mat after Kofi and Swagger dropped it from the hook] was s***), Natalya & Beth Phoenix defeated Lay-Cool In The first-ever Divas Tag-Team Table Match (another good match, although there was a scary moment when Beth came close to breaking her neck after falling head-first to the floor), Santino & Kozlov retained the WWE Tag-Team Titles against The Nexus (nothing match, cheap DQ finish), John Morrison beat Sheamus in a great Ladder Match to earn a WWE Championship Match, The Miz beat Randy Orton in a Tables Match to retain the WWE Championship (this was adequate, although the “re-start” was pointless), Edge beat Kane, Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio in a “TLC” Match to become the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion (this was the best match of the PPV), and John Cena beat Wade Barrett in a very effective, well-executed “Chairs” Match (after the match, Cena continued to attack Barrett with a chair, and then caused 20-odd chairs from the “TLC” set to fall on Barrett).
Previously posted on Smash Wrestling:
http://www.firetank.com/smashwrestling/
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